OK, it just ticks me off.
How can anyone throw around bible verses randomly and use them as an "argument" for how we are supposed to "live biblically"?
I get it, the bible is helpful for teaching, rebuking, training...I get it.
Helpful.
But here I am in Ephesians reading about how Husbands and Wives "should" love each other and how children "should" honor parents, and next think I know Paul is saying how slaves "should" obey, respect and fear their masters! As they would Christ!?!?! COME ON!
Sure, he continues with beautiful sentiment about being a slave to Christ and showing that kind of love and being rewarded for that. And he continues with the directive for Masters to treat slaves the same.
The point is, I just can not believe people pull out a bible verse and act like it's equal in authority, relevance or importance to any other verse just because maybe it says something that confirms or defends their position on something.
Or, out of sheer ignorance? They really think every single word is a directive that is equal to every other.
Absurd.
Paul was addressing a community where slavery WAS happening. There wasn't even a discussion on the table about slavery NOT happening. So, he addresses what IS happening and suggests order, love, and respect within the existing circumstances.
But if someone pulls out the verse "slaves obey your earthly masters with respect, and fear and with sincerity of heart", they could use it to defend a position that God condones slavery.
UGH!
Absurd!
When Jesus gives the sermon on the mount he says "'by their fruit you shall know them"...and when asked about ALL Of the laws, he says they can be summed up in "Love God, love others."
So, when discussing a "biblical view" of something, grabbing a random verse to argue about a current issue, when that verse was written to a different culture at a different time, with different circumstances I would hold it loosely. Because, Jesus, who we worship, follow and believe, summed up the law! So, yes, His words ARE more important and hold more weight.
We look at slavery and ask, does it produce good fruit? Is it loving?
NO!
OK, then perhaps it is not something that should be supported and practiced in the kingdom of God....by those who proclaim to be in the kingdom.
Of course, this fires me up, not so much because I experience modern-day people trying to defend slavery using bible verses. But I do see many Christians pulling out bible verses and using them to defend their actions of judgement, condemnation, cruelty, and discrimination towards LGBTQ people. Yet, I would argue that if you look at the random verses being yanked out of context, they are not referring to a loving, monogamous, committed, same-sex relationship. The references were about lust, sex, violence, oppression, rape, orgies, prostitution. There aren't references to respectful, mutually condoning, loving, physical relationships between same sex partners. So, to yank out a verse that's referring rape, violence and orgies and to compare it to our modern culture of same sex couples who are desiring a respectful, loving, monogamous, life-long covenant of a shared life where they honor each other with love? Wth? Then the verse is not addressing their "behavior".
Let's look at the fruit!
The fruit of a loving, committed couple sharing self-sacrificial love with each other....submitted to Jesus, loving others, being on mission for the Kingdom....
Compared to....
The fruit of Christians demanding that they NOT love each other but instead try to change...or try to live a life alone and never marry...or repent and feel disgusted by who they are and view themselves as repulsive, sinful, deviant. OH! And they definitely can't serve in the church if they're in a loving, committed, mutually respectful same-sex marriage or relationship. Their kingdom impact is not allowed in the church.
SO, they leave the church.
What kind of fruit is that? ROTTEN FRUIT.
Meanwhile, where does that leave the church?
The church is chowing down on the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and seeing that as their place. Yet, God said to stay away from that tree - or we're just trying to play God's role. We're supposed to eat from the tree of life! And we're supposed to share the fruit from the tree of live with everyone in the world! And that fruit is SO GOOD...too good to be true.
But, we're too afraid of that freedom. We don't trust it. So, we get lured into the role of moral police. That was never our place.
Love God.
Love Others.
Good Fruit.
When any person is driven AWAY from Jesus and His church and is made to feel unworthy or unwelcome, that is rotten fruit.
And it STINKS!
Do we not trust Jesus? When someone meets Jesus, loves Jesus, surrenders to Jesus as Lord...do we not trust Jesus to deal with the stuff in their life that is falling short or missing the mark?
I really don't want the job of judging each person. I don't. How can I LOVE them when I'm so focused on assessing their moral worthiness?
But, it is a beautiful thing to witness good fruit. When something is producing an overflow of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness...when something looks so much like Jesus it's compelling! If that good fruit is flowing from a couple who is the same sex, I'm OK leaving that detail up to Jesus. I can celebrate the fruit. Being the sex police is exhausting. Their relationship is NOT all about SEX! And I don't personally believe most bible verses about homosexual sex are referring to this kind of fruitful, loving relationship. Most are referring to gang rape, oppression, violence, forcing sex on children, orgies, and prostitution.
There was not a cultural reference to what is in our current culture.
Just like in Ephesians when Paul addresses slaves and masters. He didn't have any reference for a culture that did NOT have slaves. In bible verses, there wasn't an available reference for same-sex covenant love relationships. Only deviant ones.
When I watched the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, my heart broke for Freddy Mercury. He longed for a loving relationship. He tried to pursue one with a woman he loved. But, when he acknowledged his attraction was to men, his only option was the underground, hidden, dark world of sexual deviants. He wasn't allowed to pursue the kind of loving relationship he was desiring. It was forbidden.
He finally did find it. He found love. And I would imagine it was incredibly difficult to reveal their love relationship to family, friends, and the world who knew him because he was so famous. But, they did it anyways. And, that man was the partner who loved Freddy through the rest of his days and to his dying day. THAT was what Freddy wanted. He didn't WANT promiscuous, underground, kinky, forbidden sex. That's just the only thing that seemed available to him because of who he was attracted to. He wanted LOVE! He wanted to share his LIFE with someone - loving and serving each other.
And that LOVE looks like good fruit to me.
Much better fruit than loneliness, self hatred, solitude, and feeling unworthy. Or the fruit of hidden, shameful, forbidden sex that no one can know about. That's horrible. To give a person no other option but to deny them LOVE.
OK. Enough. That's my rant for today.
